ftp.wwiv.com/ftp.wwiv.com.zip/ftp.wwiv.com/pub/OFFLINE/VALEN130.ZIP/VALENCE.DOC

Text File | 1993-08-17 | 42KB | 854 lines

\WHValence QWK Door v. 1.3 by William McBrine
Copyright (c) 1993 Iconoclast Software


                     \BL:\RD*\BL:\RD*\BL:\RD*\BL: USER DOCUMENTATION :\RD*\BL:\RD*\BL:\RD*\BL:


\LB:::: \WHINTRODUCTION\LB ::::\NO

Welcome to Valence, the powerful QWK door for Searchlight. This program will
allow you to read and reply to messages offline, with all the convenience
and power of Searchlight, and more. It's packed with features. Writing them
is more fun than writing about them, and I'm pressed for time, so I'll try
to make this summary brief. To find out more about the door, explore it.
I've tried to make it fairly simple to use.

I hope you enjoy using it as much as I enjoyed writing it.


\LB:::: \WHQUICK START\LB ::::\NO

(No pun intended.) Just run the door, Download, answer "Y" when prompted,
and enjoy! There is no mandatory setup. There are slews of options, but they
all have default values. You can start QWKing right away, then go back and
explore the options when you're more comfortable with it.

Ask your sysop or someone who you know uses offline mail for help on setting
up a "Reader" program. They're all different, but pretty simple really. If
you're game, just download one and try it. There should be at least one
available for download on \%s.

If you don't want to fool with a reader program yet, you can try Valence in
Text mode. (I actually programmed this part first.) This is mainly intended
as a preview, or for use with systems that don't have QWK Readers, but it's
pretty nice as is. In fact, I honestly would rather read Text packets from
Valence than QWK packets from some other doors I've been inflicted with.

Note that the file MESSAGES.TXT will actually be an ANSI file, unless you
turn off color codes in the Options section.


\LB:::: \WHDOWNLOAD\LB ::::\NO

You can download in either Text or QWK packet mode (this file, whether
you're reading it as a Bulletin or a help screen, is an example of what the
text mode looks like). Downloaded packets include - at your option - new
mail and messages, new bulletins, a system news file (if the sysop has
provided for one), a list of new files, a SESSION.TXT file, and three
pointer files.

The first time you download, you'll see the prompt:

The subboard list has been changed since your last download.
Please upload any existing .REP files before proceeding.

Proceed? (Y/N)

If you have any packets from other/previous QWK doors that you want to
upload to Valence, answer "N" to this prompt, and go back and upload them
first. Otherwise, go ahead... later, you may see this prompt again, when the
sysop has added or deleted subboards, or your access has changed. When you
do, it's important that you upload the older replies first, or they may go
to the wrong subboards. This is the one negative side effect of Valence's
handling of conference numbers (see below for more info). On the up side,
you'll always know when subboards are added to the board. :-)

Next you'll see

Copying WELCOME

(which may or may not appear, and may be followed by NEWS and/or GOODBYE)

and then scans for new bulletins, messages, and files. Any new bulletins
found are listed by number. For the new message display and new files
display, you have a choice of several display modes. By default, you get the
area descriptions while scanning both messages and files. Other options are
described later in this document.

If you reach the maximum number of messages per packet, or the maximum
number of messages in any subboard (these are user-selectable; see below),
and you still have more new messages, you'll see this:

*** Your packet is full, but you have more new messages ***

Then, unless there were no new messages, the packet will be archived, and
you'll be prompted:

Download this packet? (Y/N/G)

"Y" and "N" are self-explanatory; "G" stands for "Goodbye after download".
This option will hang up on you after the transfer is completed, with a
ten-second delay in which you can abort the hangup, much like a download
from Searchlight. Unlike some other doors I've seen, this WORKS in Valence,
and I recommend always using the "G" option, unless you have a very small
packet or are on at high speed (so it won't take long).

After the above prompt, you'll be asked to choose a protocol if you don't
have one set in the BBS. If you do, you don't have to set it in Valence; it
will use the BBS protocol automatically. However, if you WANT to use a
different protocol for Valence, you have that option, too.

If you're using a bidirectional protocol, and you have some .REPs to upload,
you can upload them while downloading, and Valence should process them when
the download is complete.

You also have the option to download multiple packets at once; see below for
details.


\LB:::: \WHUPLOAD\LB ::::\NO

When you select this option, Valence will jump right into the upload -
unless you don't have a protocol selected, in which case it will prompt you
for one, as above. There is no option to hang up after upload, for the
simple reason that I personally have rarely encountered a .REP file much
over 10k, 5k being a more usual size. The file transfer should be over in a
snap, and when your terminal program returns from its protocol display, you
may find your new messages already posted. :-) It's pretty fast. It also is
not very prone to lockups.

If you're using a batch protocol, you can upload multiple .REP files in one
transfer. The name can be anything, but the extension must be .REP. (If you
attempt to upload .REPs from another BBS, they will still be rejected; the
filename of the .REP isn't the indicator.) After the transfer, Valence will
AUTODETECT the compression method of each .REP file, instantly, and extract
it with the appropriate program. When processing uploaded .REPs, Valence
doesn't care what you've set for your archiver choice and pays no attention
to it whatsoever. You can download with ZIP and upload with ARJ, for all it
cares.

Uploaded messages are threaded automatically. "Low-bit" characters, which
cause problems with Searchlight, are converted. (ESC codes, in particular,
are converted to the character <`>, which is recognized by many offline
reader programs as an ESC replacement in ANSI sequences. Thus uploaded ANSI
will be preserved for other QWKers, though not for online reading in
Searchlight.) In echomail subboards, "high-bit" characters are converted,
and "Fido-style" taglines are enforced automatically. You have the option to
switch this on and off for each subboard (echo and non-) individually.

ADD, DROP, RESET, and CONFIG control messages are supported. (See below for
details.) Valence will recognize messages addressed to "VALENCE", "QMAIL",
or "SLQWIK" as control messages. These messages are not counted in your
"total uploaded messages".

When your user record is first created, your subboard list is initialized in
"yucky" mode (q.v.), although the yucky mode flag is set to false. This
allows you to upload packets from older/other QWK doors before doing
anything else - handy if the sysop has installed Valence as a replacement
and deleted the other door.

\LB*** Long subject lines and "Fwd From" lines ***\NO

The subject field of a QWK message is only 25 characters, but a Searchlight
message's subject can extend to 40 characters. As mentioned elsewhere,
Valence automatically includes subject lines that go over the 25-character
limit in the body of the message; beginning with version 1.2, Valence will
also let you post messages with long subject lines. To do so, include a line
of the form

Subject: This subject is too long for QWK packets

as the first line in the text of the message.

Immediately following this line, or by itself as the first line of the
message, you can also include a "Fwd From" message up to 40 characters long
using the form

Forward: Nowhere in particular

When a long subject and/or "Fwd From" line is used, these lines are removed
from the text, along with the next line if the next line is blank.

\LB*** Netmail ***\NO

Beginning with version 1.1 of Valence, under Searchlight 3.0+ you can send
netmail messages from Valence. Netmail is not really part of the QWK
standard, so it has to be kludged in. To send a netmail message, it must
either be in the MAIL conference or marked as private. The first line in the
text of the message, or the first line after a "Subject:" line (see above)
should be either of the form

Netmail: 1:379/301

or the form

@1:379/301

The second form is a little more flexible, in that it will also work with
quote-marking characters in front of it; e.g.:

WM>@1:379/301

The first form mirrors what Valence does to indicate a received netmail
message, so you can reply to a netmail message simply by removing the
quote-marking characters from the first line of the quoted text.

Valence's netmail capability is still a little limited. You can't send
Crashmail (a "Yes" to the "Send Immediately?" question that sometimes pops
up in Searchlight's internal netmail function), and the nodelist is not
read, so you need to have the attributes for "originate" and "unlisted" to
send netmail with Valence. Ask your sysop about netmail access.

When a netmail message is posted, the address line is removed from the text,
along with the next line if the next line is blank.

If using both "Subject:" and "Netmail:", "Subject:" must come first.
"Netmail:" overrides "Forward:" (they use the same area in Searchlight's
message header), so they cannot be used together.


\LB:::: \WHOPTIONS\LB ::::\NO

There are altogether too many options in the Options section, but that's
better than too few. Valence allows you substantial control over the size
and shape of your packet.

There are three screens of options. On the first screen, you can set your
choice of Archiver, Protocol (here you can set new protocols for both
Searchlight and Valence, together or separately), packet size in number of
messages, and ten yes/no options. These options will be explained in more
detail at the end of this file.

At each numeric prompt, you'll see a range of numbers in parentheses, along
with another number in brackets. These are the maximum, minimum, and default
values. If you just press <RETURN>, the default will be used.

Note that most changes in options can be discarded when you leave the
Options section by answering "N" at the "Save changes?" prompt, BUT, the BBS
protocol selection and Alias name are written to Searchlight's user file at
the time you edit them and are not affected by this prompt.

\LB*** ANSI/Translation ***\NO

The ANSI/Translation screen allows you to set the default mode Valence uses
in translating messages. By default, all translation is ON. When I first
wrote it, I thought the translation might slow message exporting down a bit,
but there proved to be no detectable difference. Thus you can run with full
Searchlight translation, without overhead. Color codes may be translated to
ANSI, stripped, or simply passed through. Note that translating to ANSI
takes precedence over stripping if both are set to "YES". Metacharacters
(like your name, \%k) may be translated or passed through. The use of
underline characters to join lines may be turned on or off, and this is one
case where I might recommend setting it to "NO", because this feature of
Searchlight is rarely used, and in my own experience I get much more
unintentional wrapping than deliberate, from people using underline chars
for other reasons (as, for instance, to indicate the title of a book).

Just as in Searchlight, all translation is also applied to included files,
except - as in Searchlight - for underline joining and including files
(which could lead to infinite recursion). Thus with the default settings,
you should get in your QWK packet just what you would see if you were
reading online in Searchlight.

The ANSI wrap is a little feature I had to add when I saw what SLMR did to
the included files that had lines which went over 80 characters. My wrap
will split the lines nicely, and join them with <ESC>[s and <ESC>[u
sequences. This works great for most ANSI pictures, but will mess up ones
that scroll the screen. If your reader will handle long lines, you may want
to reset the wrap length to 255, so they'll all come through correctly. The
wrapping is only applied to included files, not regular text, and only in
QWK mode.

There's a special option here to strip flashing codes, for people like me
who find it annoying. Other color codes will be unaffected. Only Searchlight
flashing codes will be removed, not actual ANSI sequences from included
files.

The "Color the filelist" option puts NEWFILES.DAT in color. I feel it's a
distinct improvement over plain text, but you might want to leave this off
if your reader doesn't like it (the majority, it seems, don't; SLMR and OLX
do), or to save space, or because you just don't like the color scheme. This
option is ignored in Text packet mode, where the regular ANSI conversion
attributes are checked instead.

All translation options are global defaults, and can be reset for each
subboard. You can have some subboards with colors, and some without; some
with metacharacters, and some without. Mix and match any way you like!

\LB*** Advanced options ***\NO

The first option on this menu is "Alias name". There is a field defined in
the Searchlight user file for this; it's been there for some time, but
Searchlight doesn't use it. Well, now Valence uses it. (I've heard there's
another program out now which uses it, too, but I haven't seen it.) When you
set your alias, Valence will scan the user file to make sure no one else is
using it for either their name or alias. To delete your alias name, just hit
<ENTER> when Valence prompts you for a new name.

Valence uses the alias name in two ways: when scanning for new personal
messages, and when posting to an "Anonymous"-allowed subboard, where you can
post with your alias, real name, or "ANONYMOUS". This is a bit of a kludge;
let me know if you have any better ideas on how to implement alias support.

The rest of the Advanced options will be explained at the end of the
document.


\LB:::: \WHSUBLIST\LB ::::\NO

The subboard list editor allows you to join, unjoin, mass join/unjoin, set
new high message markers, and set the special options for each subboard that
you have access to. You can page through it easily with the + and - keys.
Most of these options are, I hope, fairly self-explanatory.

Note that you are not allowed to unjoin or edit the MAIL subboard, even
though it's displayed. The attributes used for the MAIL subboard are
controlled by the global variables only.

Each line of the display in the subboard list shows the number, the name,
the long description, the high message (i.e., your last read message), the
number of the last message in the subboard, and the special attribute list.
This last one looks a little cryptic; the header says "PAHFSCM". These
letters each stand for a flag; there are seven flags packed into a byte for
each subboard. The flags are:

\WHP = Personal Only
A = Personal + All ;This takes precedence over P\NO
H = High Bits Allowed
F = Enforce Fido Taglines
S = Strip Color Codes
C = Convert Color Codes
M = Convert Metacharacters

The last three, we've already seen under Options. Here you can reset them
for each subboard. Note that these three options are not really active,
UNLESS you explicitly set them with the <C>hange attributes command.
Otherwise, the global values are active. There is a hidden eighth bit, the
master bit, which controls whether these three options are checked.

\LB*** High bits allowed, Enforce Fido taglines ***\NO

These two options are also subject to the master bit. By default, "high-bit"
characters - those in the range 128-255 - are excluded from echomail areas,
and Fido-style taglines are required there. (This is a rule in most Fidonet
echos. Violating it will get you reprimanded by the moderator.) This is
reversed for local subboards.

When Valence is asked to translate the high-bit characters in incoming
messages, it does a rapid translation with a lookup table that turns the
high-bits into similar-looking low-bit ones. (This translation is performed
when high bits are allowed, too, to take care of some other problem
characters; Valence just uses a different table then.) To make "Fido-style"
taglines, "tearlines" are converted from "---" to "-=-".

What this boils down to is, you don't have to worry about setting Fido-style
taglines in your reader, or using high-bit characters in messages. You can
do as you like, and Valence will take care of it for you. If, however, you
have an echo conference on which high-bit characters ARE allowed, or you
want to change either of these options for a subboard for whatever reason,
the options are here.

\LB*** Personal only and Personal/All ***\NO

These two options are the most useful. They are not subject to the master
bit; which is to say, you can set either of these without it affecting the
non-preservation of the other attributes.

Instead of having to download all the messages on a subboard, you can set
that subboard to scan for just messages addressed to you (and your alias
name, if one is set), or just messages to you and "ALL". There are two
mass-join features on the main SubList menu to facilitate this; unlike the
<X> toggle option, which only applies to the subboards on the screen before
you, the <P> and <A> options will join ALL unjoined subboards which you have
access to, in either personal or personal/all mode.

When Valence is looking for messages to all, it also counts those where the
first four characters of the To: field are "ALL ", OR, the first five
characters of the field are "EVERY". This means it will include messages
addressed to "Everybody", "Everyone", and "All You Zombies" (to quote The
Hooters).

Note that when you join a subboard in personal or personal/all mode, you are
genuinely Joined to that subboard, as far as Searchlight is concerned, and
if you then do a New/Joined scan from Searchlight, you'll hit that subboard
(without the benefit of personal/all filtering).

All edited attributes will follow the subboards they're attached to if their
conference numbers change.

For an amusing display, try the subboard list in "yucky" mode. The numbers
can end up in any order. This is what your CONTROL.DAT file will look like
in yucky mode, too.


\LB:::: \WHPOINTERS\LB ::::\NO

Most other QWK doors only give you one pointer file, but with Valence you
get three for the price of one.

A pointer file is a record of the "high message markers" in each conference.
Valence only records the ones it updates. The one with the .PTO extension
contains the old pointers, from before your download; the .PTN file is what
Valence sets them to after a successful download. (The .PTN file is the
actual file read by Valence at the end of a download when it says "Updating
pointers".) The .PTX file is not really a pointer file, but a copy of your
record in Valence's user file.

You'll rarely have to use any of these files, or this feature of the menu,
but they're there if you need them. The pointer files are placed first in
the packet, so that if you have a failed transfer, they'll be most likely to
get through.

If your packet was corrupted in downloading, but you can still extract the
.PTO file, and Valence thought your transfer went ok and updated your
pointers, (ARGH!) you can upload the .PTO file to put things back the way
they were before the transfer and redownload the messages.

If there's a crash on the BBS, and it's restored from yesterday's backup,
and all your message pointers are set back to what they were the day before,
you can upload the .PTN file to avoid rereading.

If you get a "The subboard list has been changed since your last download"
message, and you really want to go on and download, but you haven't finished
replying to your last packet yet, go ahead and download. Then go back and
finish replying to the first packet, and upload the .PTX file from it, THEN
the .REP. Then, before you upload your .REP to the new packet, upload the
.PTX file from it. Make sure you keep the .REPs SEPARATE!


\LB:::: \WHCONTROL MESSAGES\LB ::::\NO

These are messages you send to Valence in a .REP to configure it in the same
way as you would online. All the options of online configuration are
available here, with the exception of subboard attributes other than
personal and personal/all. The form of a control message is a message
addressed to "VALENCE", with the subject either "ADD", "DROP", "RESET", or
"CONFIG".

"ADD", "DROP", and "RESET" are standard messages which can be generated by
some readers automatically. If you're doing it manually: The message should
be sent in the conference (subboard) to be added, dropped, or reset.
Following the command in the subject for "ADD" and "RESET" may be a number;
this number is the new high message to set for that subboard. If it's
positive, it's an absolute message number; if it's negative, it's an offset
from the last message on the subboard. If no number is given, ADD sets the
high message to 0, and RESET sets it to last message on the subboard. The
ADD command may further be followed by a "Y" to indicate join in personal-
only mode, or a "YA" for join in personal/all.

"CONFIG" messages are a little more complicated. These allow you to set all
the options you can set in Valence online, as well as joining and dropping
multiple conferences from within a single message. "CONFIG" is the subject,
and the message may be sent in any conference. Each line of the message
consists of a command keyword, followed by optional parameters. You can use
these keywords in any order, and case is irrelevant. Comments may be added
to the message with semicolons, and blank lines will be ignored. The
commands are as follows... "#" represents a number, brackets indicate an
optional parameter:

\YEADD   <conference> [#] [Y] [YA]
DROP  <conference>
RESET <conference> [#]\NO

As when used in the subject field, with the addition of the conference
number.

\YEMAXSUB   #  ; Maximum number of messages per subboard
MAXTOTAL #  ; Maximum number of messages per packet

These values are not absolute. Starting in Valence version 1.2, if you hit
the limit on a given subboard, but you have five or fewer messages to go,
they'll be included too.

VPROTO   #  ; Set Valence's protocol to this number
SLPROTO  #  ; Set Searchlight's protocol to this number

ARCHIVER  name\NO

Set your archiver choice to the one named, if the name is found.

\YEALIAS     name  ; Set/reset your alias

ANSIWRAP  #     ; Set ANSI wrap length to this number\NO

The remainder of the options are "boolean-type". Put a "Y" or "Yes" after
each keyword to set it to "Yes" (true), or a "N" or "No" to set it to "No"
(false).

\YEUNDERJOIN   ; Join lines with underline      Default: \WHYes\NO
\YEMETACHARS   ; Replace metacharacters         Default: \WHYes\NO
\YESTRIPCOL    ; Strip color codes              Default: \WHYes\NO
\YEANSICOL     ; Translate color codes to ANSI  Default: \WHYes\NO
\YEFLASHOFF    ; Ignore flashing codes          Default: \LRNo\NO
\YEFILECOLOR   ; Color the filelist             Default: \LRNo\NO
\YEINCLUDE     ; Expand included files          Default: \WHYes\NO


\LB:::: \WHMORE YES/NO OPTIONS\LB ::::\NO

As promised, an explanation of all the unexplained options. These will be
listed both as they appear on the Options screens and with their
CONFIG-message keywords.

\YEMARK        ; Mark new messages as read    Default: \WHYes\NO

If set to YES, Valence will update the high message pointers in all scanned
subboards, and increment the number of times read of, or delete, each
private MAIL message, after a successful packet download. About the only
reason you'd want to set this to NO is for testing purposes.

\YETEXT        ; Text packets instead of QWK  Default: \LRNo\NO

Text packets (mentioned above) combine the new bulletins, new messages, and
new files into a single large text (or ANSI) file, and archive it together
with the pointer files and WELCOME/NEWS/GOODBYE/SESSION.TXT files, if those
are selected. Where QWK packets use the extension .QWK, Text packets use the
default extension of the archiver (.ZIP, .ARJ, .LZH, etc.). You won't be
able to reply offline to messages downloaded in Text format. Other than
that, this mode is identical to QWK mode.

\YEFILES       ; Include new files listing    Default: \WHYes\NO

Valence will scan all directories you have access to, sorted by MAIN.DIR,
for new files, and list any it finds in the file NEWFILES.DAT (or
MESSAGES.TXT in Text mode).

\YEBULLETINS   ; Include new bulletins        Default: \WHYes\NO

You can leave them out if you want. The only time I'd do that is if the
board I was on was updating ten a day or so, and they were all game high
score files. (I've been in that situation, in fact, but not on a Searchlight
board (so far).) Note these are scanned for by date, and you may have
bulletins being updated without the date being changed. If so, encourage
your sysop to use BUPDATE.EXE, provided with the Valence package.

\YENEWONLY     ; DL only new private mail     Default: \LRNo\NO

By default, Valence will download all the old junk you've kept online in
your mailbox, as well as the new mail...

\YEKILLMAIL    ; Kill private mail after DL   Default: \WHYes\NO

...and then, delete it. You can save it from your reader, which should be
more convenient, and certainly will be more convenient to your sysop. Just
please BE AWARE that this is being done, and don't just discard a packet,
thinking that your old mail is still saved on the BBS.

The defaults here are partly to keep the MAIL subboard clean of old
messages, and partly a personal preference, because I too am guilty of
letting huge numbers of messages collect in my Searchlight mailboxes. Or
rather, I used to be; now Valence keeps 'em empty for me. And it works a lot
better than what I used to do: wait until I had a couple dozen accumulated,
then jump to DOS, read them with SLMAIL, archive them, move them to the
uploads directory, return to the BBS, download the archive, kill it, and
purge my mail. Valence does the same thing (and much more) automatically
(and it runs faster than SLMAIL, and purges faster than Searchlight).

\YEOWN         ; DL messages FROM yourself    Default: \LRNo\NO

The default saves a little space by keeping you from downloading what you
just uploaded.

\YEYUCKY       ; Yucky conference numbers     Default: \LRNo\NO

OK, this is a BIG one.

\LB*** Conference numbers in Valence ***\NO

One of the biggest features of Valence is the way it handles conference
numbers. This has been alluded to earlier in this document; here are the
details:

Searchlight uses 8-character names (which are DOS filenames) to identify its
subboards. The QWK format uses "conference numbers" to identify each area.
These are matched to names with the CONTROL.DAT text file, but it's the
conference numbers which are used to tell what area a message came from, and
the conference numbers which are used to tell the door what area a reply is
going to. So far, so good; it isn't hard to generate a list of numbers to
match a list of names. But there IS a MAJOR problem here, in that with
Searchlight, a new subboard can be inserted in between two existing ones, or
an old subboard can be deleted, moving the subboards that follow it on the
list up one place. If the subboards are numbered sequentially, then, and
subboards are added or subtracted in between the time you download a packet
and the time you upload a reply, the conference numbers stamped on your
reply messages may no longer be valid. That means the messages you upload
will be posted to the wrong subboards.

So, you can't use sequential numbering of the subboards in Searchlight - at
least, not without some trickery. So what DO you do? How do you make a
sensible translation from Searchlight's named subboards to the QWK format's
numbered conferences? ...A translation that will hold up when subboards are
added or deleted?

The first solution attempted in a QWK door for Searchlight was SLQWiK's use
of the absolute record number of a subboard in the SUBBOARD.SL2 file (the
master list of subboards). This number won't change, as long as the subboard
exists. If the subboard is removed, it's marked as a deleted record, and the
record numbers don't change. If a new subboard is added, it will be added to
the end or inserted in a previously deleted record.

As far as I know, Jack Ridgway hacked this method out himself, which was
pretty clever. It was successful enough that Frank LaRosa then adopted it as
the "official" way of making unchangeable reference numbers, by adding an
"absolute record number" field to the subboard information returned by the
subboard list intializer in the Searchlight Programmer's Library.

But this method leaves something to be desired. The numbers you end up with
in CONTROL.DAT are in a random order. This is very ugly, to say the least,
and can mess up many readers. (SLMR, for one, can't make a correct ".MRB"
bookmark file for packets like this. If you come back to reread such a
packet after exiting SLMR, the "Read" markers will be all over the place.)
When I set out to write my own QWK door, this was one of the first things I
wanted to fix. The way I saw it, the subboard list in your reader should
look just like the one you see in Searchlight - sorted by MAIN.SUB, etc. -
with nice sequential numbers in the CONTROL.DAT, and no gaps. And that's
what Valence gives you.

Internally, Valence keeps a table of sequential numbers -> absolute record
numbers - one for each user. This list is recalculated every time you select
the "Download" or "SubList" function, and is compared to the stored list. If
it's different, you get the "Subboard list has been changed" warning
message.

When you upload a .REP file, the conference numbers in the .REP are
translated back to absolute record numbers, using the stored table from your
last download or edit, and thence to subboard names. Thus the messages will
go the right subboards as surely as if I used absolute record numbers. The
difference here is, you have more opportunity to mess it up, by ignoring the
"Subboard list has been changed" prompt, and then uploading .REPs to
previous packets. I see this as an unlikely scenario (but see above under
POINTERS), although my personal message-reading habits make it more likely
for me than average. :-)

When you first enter Valence, it intializes your list to an absolute record
number list, so that you can upload .REPs from other QWK doors as the first
thing you do. After your first download, however, you'll have to set Valence
to "Yucky mode" (ah, finally we come to that) if you want to interchange
.REP files between it and another QWK door.

\LB*** Yucky mode ***\NO

Yucky mode discards the usual Valence method of generating conference
numbers, and uses absolute record numbers for conference numbers. I call it
that because it's yucky. I DON'T RECOMMEND ITS USE, EVER, EXCEPT IF YOU
*HAVE* TO UPLOAD A .REP FROM ANOTHER QWK DOOR. You might also use it if
you're paranoid about the possibility of uploading a message into the wrong
subboard. That can't happen in yucky mode (unless you upload replies to a
packet downloaded in NON-yucky mode). It will RARELY happen in Valence ever,
and will NEVER happen if you follow the prompts, but yucky mode offers a
very tiny extra margin of security.

\YENUMBERED    ; Numbered packet names        Default: \WHYes\NO

This option appends a two-digit number to the name of each of your packets.
The number used is the number of the packet mod 100. My own opinion of
numbered packets is that they're unaesthetic, but useful. I first saw this
feature in SLQWiK, and it's the one point (aside from devising the use of
absolute record numbers) on which I give Jack Ridgway a lot of credit. Note
that unlike SLQWiK, Valence pads numbers below ten out with a zero, so the
packets will sort correctly.

If you're doing a non-stop multiple-packet download, and you DON'T have
numbered packets selected, Valence will rename files after the first one in
the form: <BBBSID>.QW0, .QW1... .Q96, .Q97. Valence will in no case allow
you to download more than 99 packets at a time. :-)

\YEEMPTY       ; DL packets with no messages  Default: \LRNo\NO

Valence will terminate with an error and return to the BBS if this is set to
NO and it finds no new messages. Please note that if you DO have new
*bulletins* or new *files*, Valence will still abort (it won't even scan the
files), so you might want to set this to YES.

\YEWELCOME     ; Include Welcome and Goodbye  Default: \WHYes\NO

If YES, and these files exist, they will be included in the packet. These
are normally ANSI screens, and default to Searchlight's LOGIN.ANS and
LOGOFF.ANS.

\YENEWS        ; Include News file            Default: \WHYes\NO

Optional system News file, which the sysop may or may not have implemented.

\YEBBDATE      ; New bulletins from BBS date  Default: \LRNo\NO
\YEBFDATE      ; New files from BBS date      Default: \LRNo\NO

By default, Valence scans for new files and bulletins, separately, from the
date it last found any, rather than the date you were last on. If you've
ever called a board after a while's absence, logged off or been cut off, and
then realized you didn't see the new files list, but can't remember what
date it was you last called, and now if you call back and do a "New" in
"Files" Searchlight will only scan today's files... you'll appreciate this.

But if, on the other hand, you've been calling every day and checking new
files and reading new bulletins, but not always using Valence, you may want
to set these to YES to avoid rereading.

The internal dates are intialized with your last on date the first time you
use Valence, so your first download should be the same either way.

\YEALLBULLET   ; Download ALL bulletins       Default: \LRNo\NO
\YEALLNEWS     ; ALWAYS include News file     Default: \LRNo\NO

If set to YES, it forces these files to be included in your packet whether
they've been updated or not. This may be useful once in a while, especially
for the bulletins.

\YESESSION     ; Include SESSION.TXT          Default: \WHYes\NO

SESSION.TXT is a simple text file identical to what you see on your screen
while scanning, from the "Copying WELCOME" message on down through the new
files, but without the colors. It may be useful for you to see what messages
you scanned sometimes, but for the most part, this is just a frill (though
part of the QWK standard). It's just a little file, usually, but turning it
off will save you an open file handle while scanning, which can be a help
sometimes. (At the max, Valence can have more than nine files open at once.)

\YEINCREAD     ; Add to number of times read  Default: \LRNo\NO

This increments the "number of times read" counter in each message you
download. Perhaps this should be on by default, but it may slow Valence down
slightly, and since that field isn't even used in QWK packets (unless you
turn on "MOREINFO", below), and since another QWK door I tried didn't bother
incrementing them, I've left it off.

\YEMULTIPLE    ; Download multiple packets    Default: \LRNo\NO

This is a powerful option. When set to YES, whenever you get a "*** Your
packet is full, but you have more new messages ***" message, Valence will
automatically start scanning and packing the next packet after it
successfully sends the first, and will repeat until all new messages are
sent. On scans after the first one, the download prompt is turned off, as
are the bulletins, welcome/goodbye, and new files (since these have already
been scanned), and hangup after download (i.e., after transfer of ALL
packets) is automatically selected. If you only have one packet's worth of
messages, hangup is not automatically selected, and Valence operates just as
it would with this option set to NO.

\YEDLPROMPT    ; Prompt for download          Default: \WHYes\NO

If this is turned off, the "Download this packet? (Y/N/G)" prompt does not
appear, Valence goes straight to the download, and hangup mode is
automatically selected. It also replaces the "The subboard list...Proceed?
(Y/N)" prompt with a message: "Warning: The subboard list has been changed.
Old .REPs may be invalid", and goes right on with the download, so I really
advise against using this option.

\YEBLANKLIST   ; Show empty areas in scan     Default: \LRNo\NO

Shows all areas scanned, even if there's nothing new in them.

\YEMANYNUM     ; A lot of numbers in scan     Default: \LRNo\NO

In scanning for new messages, Valence will list First Msg, Last Msg, Last
Read, New Last, Extracted, and Personal. This takes precedence over "wordy"
mode. It has no effect in scanning files. This is my personal preference,
but it seems to be Too Many Numbers for some people. :-)

\YEWORDY       ; Area descriptions in scan    Default: \WHYes\NO

This prints the area descriptions when scanning new messages (if not
overridden by manynum) and new files. If off, only the area name and number
extracted (and personal) will be shown.

\YEWRAPFILES   ; Wrap filelist into 40 cols   Default: \WHYes\NO

Instead of having one short file description line of 40 characters followed
by two lines of 60 characters, you can have 4 lines (approximately) of 40
characters each, all neatly aligned. Try it, I think you'll like it. But it
does make for a larger NEWFILES.DAT than the non-wrapping mode.

\YEEXTRALN1    ; Blank line after long descs  Default: \WHYes\NO

This, the default mode, is like Searchlight's internal file listing:
single-line descriptions run together, while multi-line descriptions have a
blank line between them.

\YEEXTRALN2    ; Blank line after each file   Default: \LRNo\NO

A different way to do it.

\YEFULLSUBJ    ; Full subject in text         Default: \WHYes\NO

Searchlight's subject lines are up to 40 characters long; the QWK format is
limited to 25. If, and only if, a message's subject is over 25 characters
long, Valence will by default include it in the first line of the message
with the word "Subject: ", and a blank line afterwards. Valence will also do
this ALWAYS for "Fwd Fm:" and received netmail (which Searchlight prints as
"Origin:" but Valence prints as "Netmail:").

Also, if a subject line starts with a "Re: ", "RE: ", or "(R) ", Valence
will automatically strip it out, both to save space in the subject field and
fit more of the original subject in, and to allow better sorting of messages
by subject. (SLMR does this automatically, and it works distinctly better
since I added "Re: " stripping.) There is no option to turn this off
(sorry). The "Re: " will not be stripped out of the long subject line in the
body of the text, nor in Text mode.

\YEMOREINFO    ; Even more info in text       Default: \LRNo\NO

This adds a line, like the ones just mentioned, into the body of the QWK
message, listing number of times read, number of replies, and whether the
message has been imported or exported.

Together, these two keywords cover all the "extra" information in the
Searchlight message header. Neither has any affect in Text packet mode.
Headers in Text packets are identical to Searchlight's display, apart from
the colors.

\YEDISORDER    ; Ignore subboard list file    Default: \LRNo\NO
\YEFDISORDER   ; Ignore directory list file   Default: \LRNo\NO

Ordinarily, Valence, like Searchlight, reads the files MAIN.SUB and MAIN.DIR
and sorts the subboard and file directory lists, respectively, according to
these files. You can turn this off if you want.

\YEPERSINDEX   ; Include personal index file  Default: \WHYes\NO

You can turn off the PERSONAL.NDX file (saving another of those eleven open
files), and you won't have a "Personal" conference in your reader (or you'll
have an empty one). The only reason this option is here is because I
remember seeing it in Qmail (? I think), and it was trivial to implement.

\YEBRANDNEW    ; You haven't DLed yet         Default: \BLSee below\NO

This is normally a one-shot option; it's set to YES when you enter Valence
for the first time, to tell it to send you THIS FILE (and the intro message
in MAIL), and then set the option to NO. If you ever want to receive this
file over again, you can set the option to YES.

\YEJOINED      ; Only joined subs in sublist  Default: \LRNo\NO

This will shrink your CONTROL.DAT somewhat if you turn it on, and may make
for a neater display in your reader (though it will make gaps between
conference numbers appear), but it will prevent you from joining any
unjoined subboards offline, except with the "CONFIG" message method.


\LB:::: \WHSOMETHING NOT TO DO\BL ::::\NO

For all you masochists out there, to make Valence functionally equivalent to
SLQWiK, set these options:

UNDERJOIN No
METACHARS No
STRIPCOL  No
ANSICOL   No
FILECOLOR No
INCLUDE   No
BULLETINS No
NEWONLY   Yes
KILLMAIL  No
YUCKY     Yes
WELCOME   No
NEWS      No
SESSION   No
WRAPFILES No
FULLSUBJ  No
DISORDER  Yes
FDISORDER Yes

Sorry, there's no way I know to make Valence slow down and lock up
frequently. :-)